NPR Music: Tiny Desk Concerts

I discovered Arborea amid a sea of 1,300 songs that I heard in preparation for South by Southwest. The music stood out for its calm beauty, its rough edges, and the duo's ability to speak eloquently of life's precious moments, about the sea, and about wonder.

Shanti and Buck Curran came to NPR with their two children, their guitars, a harmonium, and a Ban-Jammer — a sweet little hybrid that's part banjo, part mountain dulcimer. And, while their music is clearly rooted in acoustic and folk traditions, Arborea's songs can roar with an electric guitar, sustained indefinitely courtesy of an electromagnetic device known as an EBow.

Chuck Brown, the Godfather of Go-Go music, died Wednesday. In 2010, he brought his full band to the NPR Music office — and put on a party like no one else.

The name Chuck Brown might not mean a whole lot to people outside the Washington, D.C., area. That would be their loss. In D.C., Brown is widely known, even revered, as the Godfather of Go-Go, a title he's held since the late '70s. Though he started out as a jazz guitarist, Brown invented go-go, a style that incorporates funk, jazz, R&B, hip-hop and dancehall, and has mostly stuck with it ever since.

Music can be a beautiful conversation — rarely is that more evident than in this Tiny Desk Concert performance with the father-son duo of Pedro Soler and Gaspar Claus. Soler plays a delicate, intimate version of flamenco guitar, while his son turns the cello into an exquisitely expressive voice. Though 45 years separate them, pay attention to how they communicate. Music as a living language, and an invisible emotional exchange, is clearly apparent in these improvisational compositions.

My favorite Tiny Desk Concert moments come when the NPR staff gathers around the desk for an artist they've never heard and walk away wanting more. I wasn't surprised to see that happen with Kishi Bashi — he is, after all, the one musician out of the 1,300 songs or so we previewed for All Songs Considered that we all agreed was a must-see at SXSW. He didn't disappoint.

When musician friends come together in an informal setting, they don't typically expect more than a good time. But when these meetings result in ongoing collaborations, it's an exciting spectacle.

The Brooklyn jazz quartet Endangered Blood was formed so its members could play benefit concerts for their friend, saxophonist Andrew D'Angelo, who'd been diagnosed with a brain tumor. D'Angelo eventually made a full recovery, but the group — Trevor Dunn (bass), Jim Black (drums), Chris Speed (tenor saxophone) and Oscar Noriega (alto saxophone) — realized that this ensemble had potential to become a real working band. In 2011, the four released a self-titled debut album.